Local Bozeman businesses plan investments for 2004

Looking into 2004, Guy Cook said he feels optimistic about the coming year’s prospects for his business.

"The economy is rebounding," the founder of Bacterin, http://bacterin.com/ a biotechnology company in Belgrade, said. "2001 was by far our worst year. After Sept. 11, everything stopped. No one would make a decision."

By KAYLEY MENDENHALL, Chronicle Staff Writer

http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2004/01/02/news/investmentsbzbigs.txt

But now, he said, business investors are starting slowly to "stick their heads out of the sand."

Because of this rebound, Bacterin and other local tech companies are looking to make business investments again in 2004.

"As we look at 2004, we roughly expect 50 percent growth in the business," said Susan Carstensen, chief financial officer for RightNow Technologies http://www.rightnow.com/ in Bozeman. "In total we’ll spend $2.5 million in capital equipment."

Much of that investment will be in RightNow’s other offices in New Jersey, San Mateo, Calif., and Dallas.

But Carstensen said the company also plans to invest in Bozeman, mostly by hiring more employees. RightNow has about 200 people working here now and plans to add another 80 positions here in the next year.

By the time each position is loaded up with benefits, Carstensen said the growth could represent an infusion of $5 million into the local economy.

Bacterin, which coats medical devices in an anti-microbial solution to keep bacteria from adhering to them, is also planning to add jobs this year.

Cook said he plans to hire at least six or seven people in 2004, some part time, some full time. And each full-time employee is paid an average of $50,000 a year.

"We have about 15 people right now," he said. "We hired four in December."

Bacterin will be looking to hire a quality assurance person, some laboratory technicians and production engineers.

Plus, Cook said, Bacterin is planning to start a spin-off company this year called Never Sink. The company will sell flies for fishing that have been coated in a special solution developed by Bacterin to keep them from sinking.

"You can put stuff on it, and sometimes it will float for a while. But we can coat the fly, and it will always float," he said. "It looks perfectly like it’s uncoated, but there is a molecular layer over the fly."

Cook said the Never Sink office will be based out of Bacterin’s Belgrade headquarters, but he plans to hire an additional five or six people for that company to work as sales representatives.

Thanks to a multi-million dollar U.S. Department of Defense contract, Bozeman-based Scientific Materials http://www.scientificmaterials.com/ is also planning to hire new faces in 2004. CEO Ralph Hutcheson told the Chronicle in September, he could hire up to 14 people to help fill the contract to work on technology to make radar systems more precise.

And LigoCyte Pharmaceuticals http://www.ligocyte.com/ of Bozeman is also planning a large expansion in the coming year including a new building.

The biotechnology company received a $400,000 loan from the City of Bozeman to help build the facility. CEO Mike McCue said in October he plans to hire 10 to 15 additional employees over the next few months, also at an average salary of $50,000 a year.